Building Company Culture – 3 Considerations

Building Company Culture – 3 Considerations

I truly believe a strong focus on building a positive company culture will drive your business forward.  I’ve seen some great ways of building culture and some not-so-great ways… so I thought it was worth sharing a few things I’ve learned about how culture works.

Culture happens whether you define it or not.

As you go about day to day work, how things are done will build a certain culture.  Take a look at the language people use with colleagues and clients.  What is accepted or corrected?  How about decisions – how are they made, and by whom?  What stories are shared by team members, about history or situations in the past?  What kinds of behaviour are recognized or rewarded in your organization?  A simple thank you goes a long way towards encouraging certain behaviours and building them into the culture.  What types of people get promoted?  This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but it provides a basis for consideration.

A bad manager can kill great culture.  A great leader builds fantastic culture.

Culture is especially influenced by the leaders in an organization.  The way they interact with each other and the entire workforce speaks volumes.  If you say your culture if one of fun and openness, but the executives interact only with each other, and are seen as extremely serious, the fun and openness will not exist.

Company culture is not about a poster on the wall.

Many companies go through exhaustive exercises to determine what their organizational values and principles should be, then create eye-catching posters with these culture statements on them in order to communicate them clearly.  If the day to day behaviours of the leaders in the organization do not reflect these statements, these posters can create far more harm than good.  It’s the unspoken behaviours that create culture, not the poster on the wall.

The key to building strong culture is in being consistent both in the definitions that you communicate and the behaviours you model and recognize.  Great organizations do both of these consistently.

What companies do you know that have great cultures?

37 Comments

  1. April 28, 2011 at 7:08 am

    [...] fact, stories are created more by what we do than what we say.  I wrote about this in my blog on Culture being more than a poster on the wall One of the most prevalent stories that the facilitators mentioned was extremely simple.  They [...]

    Reply »
  2. July 9, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    [...] navigation ← Previous Next [...]

    Reply »
  3. October 31, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    [...] Building Company Culture – 3 Considerations [...]

    Reply »
  4. May 1, 2013 at 9:02 am

    [...] was in a job I didn’t love, working for a company whose values (not the ones posted on the wall but the ones the leaders lived) I didn’t believe in. I was questioning Human Resources as a [...]

    Reply »
  5. May 19, 2013 at 9:40 am

    [...] say about what it is like to work at / work with the organization. Regardless of whether you have a poster on the wall defining your culture, in fact, culture is built by actions not intentions, and it will develop [...]

    Reply »
  6. March 16, 2016 at 9:56 am

    […] culture is truly strong, you don’t need a poster on the wall espousing it. You just live […]

    Reply »
  7. November 24, 2019 at 1:51 am

    I have to thank you for the efforts you've put in writing this website. I am hoping to see the same high-grade blog posts by you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my own site now ;)

    Reply »
  8. November 24, 2019 at 5:20 pm

    This is a topic that's near to my heart... Cheers! Where are your contact details though?

    Reply »
  9. November 25, 2019 at 7:20 am

    Hey there! I know this is sort of off-topic however I had to ask. Does managing a well-established website such as yours take a large amount of work? I am completely new to operating a blog but I do write in my journal every day. I'd like to start a blog so I can share my own experience and thoughts online. Please let me know if you have any kind of recommendations or tips for new aspiring blog owners. Thankyou!

    Reply »
  10. November 26, 2019 at 6:58 am

    I constantly emailed this webpage post page to all my associates, because if like to read it after that my contacts will too.

    Reply »
  11. November 26, 2019 at 3:52 pm

    If some one wishes to be updated with hottest technologies afterward he must be go to see this web site and be up to date every day.

    Reply »
  12. November 28, 2019 at 11:14 pm

    Wow that was odd. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn't appear. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say great blog!

    Reply »
  13. November 30, 2019 at 2:39 am

    Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My blog site is in the very same area of interest as yours and my users would certainly benefit from a lot of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Thank you!

    Reply »
  14. November 30, 2019 at 5:08 am

    I have read so many content regarding the blogger lovers but this article is genuinely a fastidious article, keep it up.

    Reply »
  15. December 1, 2019 at 5:26 am

    Wow, this paragraph is fastidious, my younger sister is analyzing these kinds of things, thus I am going to convey her.

    Reply »
  16. December 2, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    My spouse and I stumbled over here coming from a different web page and thought I might as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to going over your web page yet again.

    Reply »
  17. December 3, 2019 at 10:26 pm

    Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something informative to read?

    Reply »
  18. December 4, 2019 at 3:57 am

    I know this if off topic but I'm looking into starting my own blog and was wondering what all is required to get set up? I'm assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I'm not very web smart so I'm not 100% sure. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

    Reply »
  19. December 5, 2019 at 12:46 pm

    Good day! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be okay. I'm absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.

    Reply »
  20. December 5, 2019 at 3:10 pm

    Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn't show up. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say wonderful blog!

    Reply »
  21. December 5, 2019 at 10:24 pm

    I am really enjoying the theme/design of your blog. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility problems? A handful of my blog readers have complained about my blog not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Safari. Do you have any advice to help fix this issue?

    Reply »
  22. December 6, 2019 at 2:17 am

    Heya i'm for the first time here. I found this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and aid others like you helped me.

    Reply »
  23. December 6, 2019 at 10:01 am

    What i don't realize is actually how you're now not really a lot more well-liked than you may be now. You're so intelligent. You realize therefore considerably in terms of this subject, produced me in my view consider it from so many various angles. Its like women and men don't seem to be interested unless it is something to accomplish with Woman gaga! Your individual stuffs nice. At all times maintain it up!

    Reply »
  24. December 6, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Do you have a spam problem on this website; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; many of us have created some nice practices and we are looking to exchange solutions with other folks, be sure to shoot me an email if interested.

    Reply »
  25. December 6, 2019 at 10:13 pm

    We're a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your web site offered us with valuable info to work on. You've done an impressive job and our whole community will be thankful to you.

    Reply »
  26. December 7, 2019 at 5:51 am

    This post gives clear idea for the new visitors of blogging, that truly how to do blogging and site-building.

    Reply »
  27. December 7, 2019 at 7:00 am

    Your method of telling the whole thing in this article is in fact pleasant, all be able to simply know it, Thanks a lot.

    Reply »
  28. December 9, 2019 at 5:52 am

    Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful post. Many thanks for supplying this information.

    Reply »
  29. December 9, 2019 at 1:44 pm

    Thanks for a marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you might be a great author. I will make sure to bookmark your blog and will eventually come back in the foreseeable future. I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great writing, have a nice morning!

    Reply »
  30. December 10, 2019 at 7:21 pm

    I quite like reading through a post that can make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!

    Reply »
  31. December 10, 2019 at 11:45 pm

    I think what you posted made a great deal of sense. But, what about this? what if you composed a catchier post title? I mean, I don't want to tell you how to run your website, but suppose you added something that makes people want more? I mean Pam Ross – Building Company Culture – 3 Considerations is a little plain. You could look at Yahoo's front page and note how they create news headlines to get people to open the links. You might add a video or a related picture or two to grab people interested about what you've written. In my opinion, it would bring your blog a little livelier.

    Reply »
  32. December 11, 2019 at 11:34 am

    It's in reality a great and useful piece of info. I am glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply »
  33. December 12, 2019 at 3:56 am

    Greetings! Very helpful advice in this particular article! It's the little changes that produce the largest changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!

    Reply »
  34. December 12, 2019 at 12:47 pm

    I do not even understand how I stopped up here, but I assumed this post used to be great. I don't know who you're but definitely you are going to a well-known blogger if you aren't already. Cheers!

    Reply »
  35. December 13, 2019 at 4:24 pm

    I visited multiple sites but the audio feature for audio songs present at this site is truly wonderful.

    Reply »
  36. December 13, 2019 at 4:43 pm

    It's nearly impossible to find knowledgeable people in this particular subject, however, you seem like you know what you're talking about! Thanks

    Reply »
  37. December 22, 2020 at 7:59 pm

    I am regular visitor, how are you everybody? This post posted at this web site is in fact pleasant.

    Reply »

Leave a Comment

We would be glad to get your feedback. Take a moment to comment and tell us what you think.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.